Trademarks for Open Source Projects: Difference between revisions
(Created page with "Discussion of why they are useful, by OSHWA Certification site: https://certification.oshwa.org/process/branding.html Note the two links there: https://www.pcworld.com/arti...") |
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https://certification.oshwa.org/process/branding.html | https://certification.oshwa.org/process/branding.html | ||
Note the | One link: | ||
https://opensource.com/business/11/6/open-business-importance-trademarks-even-open-source-business | |||
Note the second link there: | |||
https://www.pcworld.com/article/165161/trademarks_open_source_friendly.html | https://www.pcworld.com/article/165161/trademarks_open_source_friendly.html | ||
Has a another link to trademarks being a menace to open source - | |||
https://www.pcworld.com/article/164633/trademarks_hidden_menace.html | |||
For example, you cannot use the word Linux for commercial purposes without getting a sublicense. ''There is nothing free about the word Linux'' | |||
There is a way that a trademark can prevent redistribution, according to the article: it points to branded RHEL software, where removing the Red Hat logo may break the software. So trademark, like anything else, can be abused - if it is difficult to strip the trademark. A case of RH logo being hard to remove can be a trojan horse preventing redistribution. Point: make it easy for your non-branded value to be shared. | |||
=Links= | =Links= | ||
*Nominative use case exemption for trademarks - [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nominative_use] | *Nominative use case exemption for trademarks - [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nominative_use] | ||
*Debian trademark guidelines - [https://www.debian.org/trademark] | |||
Latest revision as of 21:09, 24 December 2019
Discussion of why they are useful, by OSHWA Certification site:
https://certification.oshwa.org/process/branding.html
One link:
https://opensource.com/business/11/6/open-business-importance-trademarks-even-open-source-business
Note the second link there:
https://www.pcworld.com/article/165161/trademarks_open_source_friendly.html
Has a another link to trademarks being a menace to open source -
https://www.pcworld.com/article/164633/trademarks_hidden_menace.html
For example, you cannot use the word Linux for commercial purposes without getting a sublicense. There is nothing free about the word Linux
There is a way that a trademark can prevent redistribution, according to the article: it points to branded RHEL software, where removing the Red Hat logo may break the software. So trademark, like anything else, can be abused - if it is difficult to strip the trademark. A case of RH logo being hard to remove can be a trojan horse preventing redistribution. Point: make it easy for your non-branded value to be shared.